Fire and Ice
by Inksaber
Summary: To complete her second lightsaber, Ahsoka must enter the caves of Ilum and face her worst fears. A one-shot. Written for StarWarsRocksMySocks.


**I don't own Star Wars. Sad, huh? ;)**

**Well, I had nothing else to write, so I decided to do this. **

**For StarWarsRocksMySocks, who gave me the idea for this fic. :) And thank you SnipsSkywalker, Ahsoka-Tano-Padawan and Pinksaber13 for helping me with this! :) **

* * *

><p>"Master, are you sure about this?"<p>

Ahsoka looked doubtfully at Anakin as she shivered in the icy winds of Ilum. They stood outside the crystal caves where the Jedi came to build their lightsabers. Ahsoka placed her hand on the lightsaber she already had. Anakin had been teaching her to fight with a shoto along with her other blade, and he had decided shortly after her 15th birthday that she was ready to build a shoto of her own.

However, that involved visiting the caves of Ilum, and Ahsoka had heard some frightening things about it.

Anakin nodded beside her. "At some point in your life, you were going to have to come here. Since you didn't get your first crystal from Ilum, I thought you should get your second one. Hurry; the weather is only going to get worse from here on."

Ahsoka walked hesitantly into the caves and stopped short at the brilliant sight before her. Blue, green and even yellow crystals were set against a black rock. The sea of colours glowed, lighting up the cave, and there was something hypnotizing about the way the shadows flickered against the walls.

Ahsoka took a few steps forward. There was nothing scary about the cave. The other Padawans had most likely made that stuff up to impress the Younglings. Then...

"Ahsoka."

The Padawan turned to see Anakin standing behind her. "What are you doing here? I thought you said I have to do this alone!"

Anakin shook his head. "What's the point? Even an extra lightsaber won't help your combat skills."

Ahsoka frowned. "What is wrong with you?"

Anakin smiled, a mocking expression that made Ahsoka step back. "I never should have taken you as a Padawan. I thought that you could help me advance to Master, but you're a waste of my time."

Shock froze Ahsoka's mind. She couldn't talk. She could barely think.

Anakin walked forward. "You didn't really think I took you on as a Padawan because you _impressed_ me, did you?"

Suddenly, Ahsoka noticed that Anakin's form was shimmering. A spirit? Was this a vision?

"You aren't my Master," she said quietly.

Anakin halted. "Aren't I? Let me show you something, Padawan, because you seem to doubt me." The spirit waved his hand, and Ahsoka faintly saw two blades flashing in front of her. The image was hazy, but she could clearly make out Anakin and herself duelling. They were obviously not sparring for fun...

"Don't you see?" came the spirit's voice from behind her. "I should kill you now."

Ahsoka turned around, her eyes flashing at the imposter. "Then kill me."

The imposter merely looked at her for a minute. Then his eyes began to turn yellow. "You are weak."

"Better weak then heartless," Ahsoka snapped. The spirit vanished.

Ahsoka sighed in relief and continued farther into the cave. It hadn't been easy to face her Master's contempt, even if it hadn't really been Anakin. She hoped she wouldn't encounter anything worse.

Then she heard a voice she hadn't heard in over a decade call her name. She blinked in shock as the ghostly spectres of her parents appeared.

"You left us," her father said coldly. "Our only child, and you left."

Ahsoka felt an odd stab of pain at seeing her father for the first time in many years. Her mother didn't say anything, she just looked at Ahsoka sadly.

"I didn't _leave_," she responded. "You gave me up to the Jedi."

"We haven't heard from you in 12 years," her mother said. "Do we mean that little to you?"

Ahsoka realized it was pointless to argue with a spirit, but it was hard not to. "Jedi aren't allowed contact with their relatives. Surely you knew that."

"I've missed you," her mother stated simply. "The Ahsoka I remember wouldn't hesitate to break rules."

_I still don't, _Ahsoka thought. "Times change," she said. "I'm not the Ahsoka you remember."

"Come back to Shili," the older Togruta pleaded. "I want to see you again."

Ahsoka closed her eyes. She read between the lines of her mother's words. She wanted her to leave the Order. She supposed she would always love her parents, but she couldn't do that.

"I'm sorry," Ahsoka said, opening her eyes again. "But I can't." She stared into her mother's eyes, blue, like her own and watched as disappointment filled them.

"I don't know you anymore," her father said, and her parents faded away.

Pushing the thoughts of her parents from her mind, Ahsoka continued into the cave. Suddenly, two light green crystals caught her eye and she knew that they were the ones she would use in her shoto. She grabbed the crystals. She had already built the shoto, all it needed was the crystals.

* * *

><p>A little while later, Ahsoka came out of the trance-like state she had gone into to build her lightsaber. She examined the shoto carefully, then activated it.<p>

The lime green blade sprung forward without a problem. She swung it experimentally, noting how much lighter the shoto was compared to her other lightsaber. She attached the shoto to her belt, then left the cave without looking back.

Anakin was waiting when she exited the cave. "Let's see," he said. Ahsoka shuddered as she thought back to the Anakin she had encountered in the cave. Wordlessly, she handed the shoto to her Master.

Anakin's expression was one of approval as he studied the hilt and blade. "Very nice, Snips. It looks fine."

"Thank you," Ahsoka murmured.

Anakin looked closely at her. "What did you see in there?"

"I'll tell you later," Ahsoka said, shivering. "But can we get out of here first?"

Anakin cast a wary glance at the snowy slopes below the cave. "Are you sure you're ready to go down that again?"

"Anything is better than staying up here."

By the time they got back to the ship, Ahsoka had lost feeling in her hands and her limbs were stiff from the cold.

"I _hate _cold weather," Anakin said beside her. His words were almost lost in the howling wind. They quickly entered the ship, brushing snow from their cloaks. Ahsoka collapsed on a chair.

"I'm never doing that again," she said.

"Let's hope you never lose your crystals, then," Anakin said, shedding his cloak.

Ahsoka pretended to examine her lightsaber while thinking about the spirits she had met in the cave. She hadn't thought of her parents in years. It had crossed her mind once or twice that Anakin had only taken her as a Padawan because it would enable him to become a Master, but she hadn't thought that in a long time.

"Ahsoka?" Anakin sat in the co-pilot's seat, beside her. "What did you see in the cave? You were in there for quite a while."

Ahsoka was quiet for a while. "Did you ever think I was just... a waste of your time?"

Anakin blinked at her. "Excuse me?"

"I met a a vision of you in the cave," Ahsoka said. "You told me that you had only taken me on as a Padawan because you wanted to become a Master, but I was proving to be a waste of your time. Then you showed me a vision of us fighting and said you should kill me. After that, I met my parents, who tried to convince me to leave the Jedi Order."

Anakin stood up again. "If you forget everything else I taught you, remember this: don't listen to anything you hear in that cave. Nearly everything you see is your fear manifested into visions. If you were a waste of my time, I wouldn't have been freezing my fingers off waiting for you to finish your lightsaber. And I will _never _try to kill you."

Ahsoka smiled faintly. "I didn't think you would." She frowned. "If everything was my fears, then why did I see my parents? I'm not afraid of them."

"I don't know, Ahsoka. I think only you can answer that question." Anakin suddenly narrowed his eyes. "Have you ever thought that I only took you as my Padawan because I wanted to become a Jedi Master?"

Ahsoka looked down. "Maybe once or twice."

Anakin shook his head. "If I had wanted to train a Padawan just so I could be a Master, I would have picked a Padawan that was easier to deal with." He grinned. "Becoming a Master would never be a big enough reward for having to train you. And you're enough like me that you understand that."

Ahsoka looked at him for a minute, then burst out laughing. To anyone else, that might have seemed like an insult, but Ahsoka knew that in Anakin's eyes, that was a compliment.

"Master Obi-Wan must have had a really tough time with you," she said innocently.

Anakin shook his head. "You know, Snips, you're lucky you can watch my back in a fight or you might find yourself floating home."

Ahsoka rolled her eyes, then looked out the window. She had been stupid to think the vision meant anything. Anakin would never hurt her.

The snow outside blew faster, as if in agreement.

* * *

><p><strong>Hope you liked it! <strong>

**Please review!**

**(And check my profile on December 1st for the start of a new full-length story!)**


End file.
